Xavier Sánchez Choez

After graduating as a physician, I began to work in primary care in public and private health care centers. I have seen many problems on the efficiency of health services; because of that, I was wondering how to improve the health system and the health services. Consequently, I decided to investigate all factors that involved the quality of health care. My research field is related to Heath Technology Assessment (HTA), it refers to the systematic evaluation of properties, effects, and impacts of health technologies. I am interested in the process to evaluate the social, economic, organizational and ethical issues of health interventions or health technologies. The main purpose of doing this kind of research is to inform a policy decision making and to improve the quality of health services. I have studied epidemiological methods of research, including methods for developing systematic reviews and methods for economic evaluation in health care. I have worked for the Ministry of Public Health of Ecuador generating studies of HTA, these studies have permitted the Health National Authority making an informed decision related to the provision of health care services, incorporating, excluding or keeping health technologies. Now, I am focus on the study of rational use of drugs, especially antibiotics. I have started a project that evaluate the appropriate prescription of antibiotics in several common infectious diseases treated in primary care. I am interested in studying patient’s and physician’s factors that motivate an antibiotic prescription; moreover, I have been measuring the costs associated to the antibiotic use and the effect of some interventions to improve the antibiotic prescription. In addition, I have written many papers about the impact of health technologies on the health care system in Ecuador. Furthermore, over the last two years, I have been supervising ten postgraduate students, they have been participating in the project and have been conducting research related to the rational use of antibiotics. In brief, I have a broad knowledge in epidemiology, public health and health economics. I feel I am ready to take the next step in my career and work as a researcher at CISeAL and contribute to improving the health and well-being of people.